BY
Jennifer Morris

Updated: Saga makes 100 staff redundant

Saga Group has confirmed that 100 people from across the business are to be made redundant, after reporting a £2 million hit from the collapse of Monarch Airlines in September.

Sharelines

Overall Saga expects an increase in the profitability of its broking and travel businesses next year

The business revealed in a trading update for the period from August 1 to December 5, 2017 that the Monarch Airlines administration had impacted its underlying profit.

The group’s growth in underlying profit before tax is expected to be between 1% and 2% for the year ended January 31, 2018, but this has been impacted by "more challenging trading in insurance broking during the period and the Monarch Airlines administration", the company said.

Saga said in the statement: “Our travel segment continues to trade well and is expected to be strongly ahead of the prior year.

“However, the tour operations business has been impacted by the collapse of Monarch Airlines, with an approximate one-off cost of £2 million.”

During the period, Saga has completed a review of its operating structure, “which will realise approximately £10 million of annualised savings next year”.

In a seperate statement, Saga confirmed that 100 jobs had been axed, although would not specify from where in the business.

A spokesperson said: "We can confirm that the difficult decision was taken last week to make around 100 employees redundant across the business.

"This process is being managed sensitively with all of Saga’s impacted employees. We are consulting with all those affected and until this process is complete we are unable to confirm the changes that will be made.

"Like many companies, we review our structure on a regular basis and in taking this action our objective is to make the business more efficient, customer focused and sustainable in the long term.

"We have made good progress this year against our strategic priorities, including the launch of a membership programme to reward our customers and the agreement to build a second new ship.

"The changes we have made this week will allow us to invest further in future growth."

Overall Saga expects an increase in the profitability of its broking and travel businesses next year, including the approximately £10 million of savings.